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Cristóbal Balenciaga Quotes

7 quotes from Cristóbal Balenciaga — Spanish fashion designer who founded the Balenciaga fashion house..

A couturier must be an architect for design, a sculptor for shape, a painter for color, a musician for harmony, and a philosopher for temperance.

Design

Elegance is elimination.

Elegance

The war years made Balenciaga into the great couturier he became. Closed off in his studio, which became a sort of laboratory, Balenciaga could work quietly and develop his craft. Until then he had been merely gifted, by the war's end he was unique.

Mary Blume, The Master of Us All

Balenciaga alone is a couturier in the truest sense of the word. Only he is capable of cutting material, assembling a creation and sewing it by hand. The others are simply fashion designers.

Coco Chanel

A couturier must be an architect of form, a sculptor for shape, a painter for color, a musician for harmony, and a philosopher for measure.

Cristóbal Balenciaga, as reported by biographers

Haute couture is like an orchestra whose conductor is Balenciaga. We other couturiers are the musicians and we follow the direction he gives.

Christian Dior

This is the house where couture for me is kind of innate, the essence. I felt it was my obligation. [Fear](/mental-models/fear) of not being enough. Fear of having to fill these very big shoes, left by 'the master of us all.'

Demna, on Cristóbal's legacy

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